Developer Diaries

Darkwatch Full Moon: Volume V

Precisely what does it mean to have a reputation system in the first place? Does it mean that your reputation precedes you in the game? Does your reputation reflect your propensity to do evil things, or if you help those in need? Is it your reputation as a gunslinger, with no consideration of your moral compass? How is your reputation reflected in the game? If you're a bad guy, does your face appear on wanted posters? What equivalent effect occurs if you're being good? How does the player know when he's on the threshold of changing from good to evil? Can an evil player repent? Is the game more difficult for an evil player, and is that fair or even desirable as a game feature?

And most important of all -- how does it get under my thumb? A complex and "realistic" system driving the behaviors of enemy characters and the world really isn't much use if the player can't intuitively determine how he is impacting and interacting with that system -- in fact, it can do a positive harm if a complex system interferes with other important game functions (or eats precious schedule time) while remaining opaque to the player.

With reputation, we broke the problem down into smaller parts by asking (and answering) a number of questions:

How do I know if I am good or I am bad?

What actions trigger a change in my status?

What are the effects of a good reputation?

What are the effects of a bad reputation?

How is the player rewarded by the system?

(Most important of all) Is this system fun?

Some of these questions are answered by the way our interface works, and it will be easier for you to play the game than for me to explain how it works (yeah, that's a plug to buy the game, but we have to pay the bills). What I can do is reveal a bit about how the player is rewarded by the system.

Performing certain good or evil acts results in the player being awarded a boon (or "Brand"). Brands go into your interface, and each represents a unique vampire power. There are good Brands (like the Silver Brand, which increases your damage against the undead), while others are Evil (like the Soulstealer, which well, wait and see). The further you continue down a path of good or evil, the greater the number and the more potent the available Brands become. Once you acquire a Brand, it gets powered-up (and eligible for use) when you've absorbed enough blood to make the Brand crackle to life.

But wait a second! Sucking blood sounds kind of evil. Can you use blood to power a good Brand? Yes, you can because in Darkwatch, it isn't subsisting on blood that makes you evil, its where (and from whom) you get the blood that counts. Gunning down an innocent civilian may be an easy source of blood, but it definitely indicates an evil reputation. Taking care to shoot only the bad guys -- or going out of your way to protect the innocent -- puts you on a path of virtue, and ensures that you'll acquire Brands from the positive side of the moral spectrum.